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The Daily TIP: Sisi Says That with Egypt-Israel Natural Gas Deal His Country "Scored a Goal"

Posted by Tip Staff - February 22, 2018

Sisi Says That with Egypt-Israel Natural Gas Deal His Country "Scored a Goal"Ex-NBA Star Stoudemire Launches Line of Israeli Kosher-for-Passover WinesIranian Foreign Ministry Official Threatens to Walk Away from Nuke DealIsrael Donates 50 Wheelchairs to Needy Children in South Africa

Sisi Says That with Egypt-Israel Natural Gas Deal His Country "Scored a Goal"

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, declared on Wednesday that his country “scored a goal” by signing a $15 billion deal with an Israeli company to supply natural gas, The Times of Israel reported.

Sisi said in televised comments that the project “has a lot of advantages” for Egyptians and will help turn the country into a regional energy hub. “I want people to be reassured,” he added.

The Egyptian government was not directly involved in the deal, but “provided several things to ... achieve this deal,” Sissi explained. “By taking this decision, we scored a big goal.”

Delek Drilling and its U.S. partner, Noble Energy, signed the agreement on Monday to sell a total of 64 billion cubic meters of gas over a 10-year period to Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings. The project is set to launch next year.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described the deal with the Egyptian firm as “historic” and said it would yield billions the state can invest in education, health and welfare.

In addition, the partners said they signed an accord for the sale of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields, for a total of 32 BCM and some $7.5 billion.

Several routes for shipping the gas from Israel to Egypt are under consideration, with an existing pipeline between Jordan and Egypt as the strong contender. Egypt in the past supplied Israel with gas, but that pipeline was sabotaged repeatedly by Islamist extremists in the Sinai Peninsula.

Along with being a six-time NBA All-Star, Amar’e Stoudemire can add Israeli wine maker to his resume.

On Tuesday, Stoudemire launched a line of kosher-for-Passover Israeli wine at a news conference in New York, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. “It’s a blessing for me and my family to be able to produce such great wines from a land like the land of Israel, so we’re constantly counting our blessings for that,” Stoudemire told reporters.

The line includes two red wine blends and one Cabernet Savignon. They are all produced, in limited quantity, at the Tulip Winery in Kfar Tikva. The wines are currently on sale in New York and New Jersey.

In 2016, Stoudemire signed a 2-year deal to play basketball with Hapoel Jerusalem, where he is also a part-owner. After helping the team win the Israel Basketball League Cup, he retired from playing last year.

During this time, Stoudemire started talking with the Israel Wine Producers Association. “Once I moved to Israel, it was the perfect connection to meet with the vineyards and go to the tastings and figure out the different blends for each bottle,” said Stoudemire.

“I prefer to keep the wines strictly from the grapes in Israel,” he said. “It’s my way of giving back to the land. I try to do what I can to stay rooted.”

Stoudemire has been vocal about his admiration for and connection to Israel. Although he was raised Christian, he realized a spiritual connection to Judaism after a trip to Israel in 2010.

Iran could walk away from the 2015 nuclear deal if it doesn't realize the economic benefits it was expecting from the deal, the nation's deputy foreign minister told an audience in London, Reuters reported Thursday.

Speaking at the Chatham House think tank, Abbas Araqhci said that banks were not doing business with Iran due to uncertainty over the future of the deal in light of President Donald Trump's declaration that he would no longer waive sanctions unless specific weaknesses in the deal are fixed.

“If the same policy of confusion and uncertainties about the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) continues, if companies and banks are not working with Iran, we cannot remain in a deal that has no benefit for us,” Araqchi told the audience.

Though Araqchi blamed the regime's claimed disappointment in the economic benefits of the deal on Trump, Iranian officials made similar threats when Obama was president too.

Valyollah Seif, the governor of Iran’s central bank, for example, warned in April 2016 that the nuclear deal would “break up” if the U.S. didn’t give Iran greater access to its financial system.

Businesses shied away from working with Iran was due to its involvement in money laundering and terror finance.

Stuart Levey, former Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in both the Bush and Obama administrations, said in October 2016 that businesses remain hesitant to engage in commerce with Iran because of the risks it poses due to its terror support and money laundering.

Israel Donates 50 Wheelchairs to Needy Children in South Africa

Fifty colorful, lightweight child-sized wheelchairs from Israeli nonprofit organization Wheelchairs of Hope are being distributed to needy disabled five- to nine-year-olds in South Africa through the South African chapter of WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) and the Israeli Embassy in South Africa.

The inexpensive, low-maintenance wheelchairs were conceptualized by Israeli couple Pablo Kaplan and Chava Rotshtein as a humanitarian mission to help children with disabilities in developing countries. The chairs were developed with the aid of professionals at ALYN Hospital in Jerusalem, a pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation center.

Bearing stickers with the message “To the children of South Africa with love from Israel,” the wheelchairs are being donated mainly through the Maitland Cottage Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, The Give a Child a Family organization in Margate and Umduduzi Hospice Care for Children in Durban.

In South Africa, an estimated 600,000 disabled children cannot go to school because their parents cannot afford a wheelchair.

“The idea is not the chair itself, but the mobility and independence it gives to children who would otherwise not have any access to school or community life,” Kaplan said.

Wheelchairs of Hope previously have been donated to needy children in Vietnam, Peru and Tajikistan, as well as mobility-challenged children under the age of nine in Israel and PA territories, some of them earmarked for Syrian refugee children.

This year, Wheelchairs of Hope also will be donated to children in Argentina.